Carole Bertrand hopes she’ll be that lucky when she celebrates her birthday at Rivers Casino. She checked out the new venue a few days ago but decided against visiting during the opening weekend.

“It was the weather, decided to stay home, and since it’s my birthday, we decided to come out tonight,” said Bertrand.

But first, she stopped for some drinks at Wolff’s Biergarten in downtown Schenectady.

“We like to spend money you know where we can in the local business. Go to Bomber’s and like I said come here for the first time, it was nice,” said Bertrand.

Bartender Sean Donovan is seeing more and more customers like Bertrand. The new casino attracting people to the bar both before and after they hit the slots, even more so this weekend with the good weather and the holiday.

“Seeing a lot more people coming in and really kind of happy that it’s a cash-only bar and they got a lot of cash coming in from the casino,” said Donovan.

He’s also noticing a different, older crowd.

“A lot more kind of bigger groups and families,” said Donovan.

But it’s also a happier crowd because those coming from the casino are usually winners.

“They’ve got some money to spend so they’re in a little bit of a jolly mood. It helps all the other customers have a good time too when there’s you know a group of people that are really just enjoying themselves,” said Donovan.

That’s Bertrand’s wish, ending the night with some extra cash in hand.

“I could pay for everything we had tonight,” said Bertrand.

The casino reported more than $3 million in gross gaming revenue in its first six days.